Research Facilities

Our laboratory in the Thorvaldson building contains an essential suite of sample preparation tools, including:

• A "bell jar" for the sample deposition, specialized for organic deposition
• A laminar flow hood
• Optical microscopy

Elsewhere in the chemistry department, we have excellent access to facilities that include atomic force microscopy, raman microscopy and spectroscopy, IR and UV/vis and NMR spectroscopy. 

Our X-ray spectroscopy and microscopy experiments are performed at synchrotrons. By virtue of their size and complexity, synchrotrons are national facilities that provide intense, tunable x-ray photons for x-ray spectroscopy, microscopy and scattering experiments. 

A key activity in our research group is soft x-ray microscopy. These methods are often called spectromicroscopy, as x-ray absorption and photoemission spectroscopies provide the unique electronic, chemical, orientational and magnetic sensitivity of x-ray microscopy.

At the Canadian Light Source, our group is centrally involved in the Spectromicroscopy beamline, which consists of two Scanning Transmission X-ray Microscopes (STXM) and a Photoelectron Emission Microscopy (PEEM).

The STXM microscope uses a zone plate lens to produce a spot size of ~35 nm; the image is scanned through the focus, and the image is detected in transmission. This microscope provides chemical sensitivity to nanostructures in the bulk of a sample, and is highly effective for radiation sensitive or hydrated species. 

The PEEM microscope is a commercial instrument from Elmitec Gmbh, nicknamed "CaPeRS" for the Canadian Photoelectron emission Research Spectromicroscope. The PEEM microscope images the spatial distribution of electrons that are photoemitted from a sample surface following UV or x-ray absorption, providing topographic and work function sensitivity, as well as the chemical, orientational and magnetic sensitivity of x-ray absorption spectroscopy. 

The Spectromicroscopy beamline features an elliptically polarized undulator (EPU) and a wide-energy range monochromator. The beamline will allow us to scan from ~100 - 2000 eV, giving us tremendous chemical range. We will be able to reach the 1s core electron edges from boron through silicon, the 3d transition metals, the Si, P, and Cl 2p edges, as well as many others. The EPU gives us excellent control over x-ray polarization: left and right circular polarized, as well as linear polarization with arbitrary orientation.